Many items of commerce appear in the form of a web wound upon a core. This includes materials varying from movie film to packaging materials. One commodity proving particularly troublesome to spool upon a core takes the form of labels adhered through a pressure-sensitive adhesive to a liner. The prior technique involves simply using a piece of tape to attach the first one or two labels on a strip directly to the appropriate core. This incurs several deleterious consequences. First, the use of the tape generally damages the first couple of labels on the strip. Over a period of time, this results in a substantial loss of material.
Additionally, the use of the tape to attach a strip of labels almost always necessitates a manual operation. The manual handling of the materials concomitantly requires the stopping of automated equipment with the resulting loss of substantial production time and capacity.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,900,868 to C. M. Gaffney, Jr., and 3,084,884 to M. E. Panzer show attaching devices in the form of lengths of material having a pressure-sensitive adhesive which serve to adhere the end of strips, such as movie film, to the hub of a spool. Their use, however, appears cumbersome and requires the mechanical attachment of the film itself of the assisting device.
A magazine for film utilizing a core with a tacky adhesive appears U.S. Pat. No. 2,578,283 to W. Bornemann et al. However, the magazine also required a roller under spring pressure to assure the attachment of the film to the core. Additionally, the core has no use for a strip of labels affixed by an adhesive to a liner.
P. J. Christman, in his U.S. Pat. No. 2,585,22l, shows a device for automatically winding a strip onto a number of cores in sequence. An adhesive on the cores serves to attach the strip to each core in turn. Christman, however, does not indicate that the strips may undergo removal from the core without damage, and, in particular, has no utility for spooling lables adhered by a separate adhesive to a liner.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,321,149 to P. M. Andersen et at. attaches a double-sided adhesive strip to a chart roll. Removing a portion of the outer covering of the adhesive strip permits the attachment of a first chart. Upon the removal of that chart, lifting off the second portion of the covering of the adhesive permits the attachment of a second chart. The adhesive forms a permanent bond with the chart roll. As a results, the adhesive can only attach one chart to the roll; the two separate covering portions permit the attachment of two rolls until the necessity of replacing the adhesive. Futhermore, using relatively small segments of the adhesive tape on the roll generally necessitates a manual operation to adhere the chart to the roll with the concomitant loss of time and effort.
H. T. Galley, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,503,568, discloses sections of tape used to adhere photographic film strips to a core. The tape has an adhesive on both sides, with the side exposed to the film having less coverage than the other side. The portion of the side of the tape lacking adhesive helps assure that the film can undergo removal from the core without also removing the tape. However, the attachment of the tape to the core and subsequently of the web to the tape requires substantial manual effort. Furthermore, the adhesive used to attach the film may have a destructive effect upon the ends of film to which it might adhere.
Accordingly, the search continues for a system for adhering elongated strips to a core that will allow automated processing. This should have particular applicability to strips of labels adhesively attached to a liner.